The Grimmeater
by ServantofthePlatinum
Summary: Cursed with a power few tolerate and even less comprehend, Naruto has come to Beacon to prove that he isnt a monster and take his place in the light. Pairing undecided rated M for langauge and safety
1. Introductions

While this isn't my first attempt at a fic this is my first attempt using established characters instead of OCs, so I'm asking for a little patience. Now Naruto is the main character for this story but it switches POV occasionally. Jiraiya will show up sometimes but other than that I think very few Narutoverse characters will be appearing until possibly the tournament where I'm thinking of having a few familiar faces show up to be bashed in in more ways than one ( I HATE Sasuke and the pink howler monkey with a burning passion). Other than that some Naruto characters will be referenced, but not actually show up. Although a certain white eyed girl may transfer in. I'm not sure yet. I have an idea for how to do it but I'm not sure how to do it yet. I just feel that Hinata's attitude in the RWBY verse would just scream rabbit faunus. Although if she does show she won't be stuttering and passing out constantly. I think. My muse has not told me for sure yet. Also, the title will make sense eventually. Any characters that I don't describe an outfit for are wearing what they wear in canon. I don't feel like describing something that you can get a much better image of by going to the RWBY wiki.

I DON'T OWN NARUTO OR RWBY. YOU KNOW WHO DOES. I'm not even sure I own this idea, my muse is glaring at me from the corner so I don't think I do

In many stories, the hero is a great man, loved by his people and respected for his abilities and desire to help others. This is not one of those stories. This is a story of a boy, born the last of a 'cursed' clan and scorned, reviled and hated by his home. It is a story of his desire to prove himself and earn his place in the light. And what better place to bask in the light than a place called Beacon?

"Maybe this place will be different. Eh, can't be worse than Atlas. Stupid shithole." The speaker, Naruto Uzumaki, was a boy looking to be around 17, was on a large transport Bullhead on his way to his new home for the next four years if all went well. He rather tall, being 6'5" with an extra 3 inches from his black tipped fox ears that stuck out of his spiky yellow-gold hair. His hair framed a face while somewhat handsome had only two sets of truly distinguishing marks: a pair of bright cerulean eyes and six whisker marks with three on each cheek. He was wearing a black muscle shirt with an orange spiral design over the heart and a larger one on his back made of what looked like nine orange fox tails with blood red tips. His hands were protected by a pair of black fingerless gloves with metal plates on the back of the hand. They went up about 5 inches on his arm with more layered plates on the outside of his forearm. Below that was a pair of black cargo pants with a hole cut in the back for his four foot long tail of gold fur with a black tip and a pair of black combat boots with orange laces. Over all this and completing his outfit was a black trench coat with the same spiral design from the back of his shirt.

Looking out the window of the Bullhead he could see Beacon Academy, one of the most prestigious Hunter academies in the world. It looked more like a castle than a school, but then he supposed that fit since it was essentially a training school for soldiers against the Grimm. Coming out of his musing about what would be his new home, he decided to look over his soon to be classmates. Most were nothing special but he could see several times that stood out. Towards the front of the Bullhead another blond boy was throwing up into a trashcan rather loudly. He looked like he might be somewhat tall if he wasn't hunched over a trashcan. Other than that and the fact that he was one of the only ones wearing armor there looked to be nothing special about him. Edging away from the airsick blond were two girls one a rather busty blond with very long, well kept wavy hair. The other had black hair with red tips and a red cape, and looked very well developed considering the fact that she also looked several years younger than everyone else on the Bullhead. Other than those three the only person who interested him was a cute cat faunus that he assumed was hiding that fact considering the occasional twitch he could see from the black bow covering her ears. Those four had larger aura reserves than most of the others and he assumed they would most likely be ones to look for if the rumors he had heard about teams were true. Though it was that the boy's aura felt muted, like he was either suppressing it a great deal, which would mean that his already large reserves truly monstrous or that he had never activated he aura. But what kind of idiot joins Beacon before even activating his aura? So Naruto simply assumed that his fellow blond was like himself suppressing his aura to levels that wouldn't stand out to any other sensors. He knew that his own suppressed reserves felt like they were simply very large instead of their true size, which were large enough to dwarf anyone else on the Bullhead.

Deciding that if he had to be around these people for the foreseeable future he may as well get introductions out of the way and so made his way over to his fellow faunus. Stopping next to her he stood next the empty seat next to her before he spoke up.

"This seat taken?"

Blake Belladonna was not having the best flight. While she didn't mind flying normally, her sense of smell was currently being overloaded with the smell of the sick boy at the front of the bullhead. So instead of allowing herself to be made nauseous because of the smell she buried herself in a book hoping to distract her attention. And now, just when she had managed to block it from her mind she gets distracted by someone who for some reason decided to sit next to her instead of somewhere else on the transport. But, looking up she was pleasantly surprised to find another faunus.

"No, go ahead." While sitting with an open faunus could draw attention to herself that she didn't want, that didn't mean she would be rude to one just to avoid it.

"Thanks, always do prefer to sit with a pretty girl on a long flight to sitting alone. Good company is always appreciated, isn't that right Neko-chan?" Though most of his statement had been at a normal volume he had ended in a low enough voice that only with her enhanced hearing could she hear him.

"My name is Blake and I would prefer certain information not become public. I'm not ashamed of what I am but I'd rather not deal with idiots if I can help it." Her response while tense was in an equally low voice. He chuckled before nodding and reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small vial of red liquid and handing it to her as he spoke.

"Name's Naruto and I understand completely. Would think of doing something similar but the tail is kinda hard to hide. Here, smell this though. It should deaden your sense of smell a bit for about half an hour. You've started to look a little green ever since Barfboy started to try and get his insides on the outside. Figured you might appreciate the help."

Uncorking the vial she was nearly overwhelmed by am extremely spicy scent that as promised overwhelmed her sense of smell before fading and leaving her unable to smell anything. Despite the fact that her eyes were now watering she thanked Naruto before closing her book proceeding to make small talk with the open faunus for remainder of the trip. Leaving the bullhead she was confident as they separated that she would have at least one new friend who wouldn't judge her if her one of her secrets got out.

Being one of the last ones off the bullhead due to understanding that Blake wanted to conceal her race from public knowledge and that it would be difficult to do so while being grouped with an open faunus like himself, Naruto arrived just in time to see the younger girl with the red cape sneeze in a cloud of Dust that was created by a girl he could only describe as pale and bitchy from his first impression, waving a container of said Dust under the poor girl's nose. After the following explosion and meltdown Naruto was going to help but saw that Blake was going to interrupt the Ice Queen. Figuring that she had it covered, he just watched on, amused by the now introduced Weiss Schnee's reaction to some uncomfortable fact's about the family business. Although judging from her reaction there may be some hope for SDC's future relations with faunus if her anger with what seemed to be a hint of shame were anything to go by. Seeing the red cloaked girl seem to collapse in on herself after Weiss and Blake had left he walked up to introduce himself.

Ruby Rose was distraught. She'd been at Beacon for less than five minutes and she had already made enemies with the heiress of SDC by blowing up herself, the heiress and the heiress's luggage. Not the best first impression with her new classmates. Especially when added to the fact she was entering Beacon two years early which meant everyone was even less likely to take her seriously.

Before she could wallow any longer a black gloved hand appeared in front of her.

"You alright, little Red? You'd think the heiress of SDC would know not to wave a loose bottle of Dust in someone's nose. Pretty dumb if you ask me." Taking the stranger's hand as he helped her up Ruby couldn't help cheering up a little at the new guy's words. "My name's Naruto, how 'bout you Red? And sorry but I gotta agree with Ice queen one thing, you do seem a bit young to be here. How'd you get in early?"

Sorting through the rapid speech Ruby responded while dusting herself off after standing. "I'm Ruby Rose and no I don't mind, I got scouted out of Signal two years early." She went with what Professor Ozpin told her to say if anyone asked. It was quicker than the long version. Before Naruto could respond they were interrupted by a new voice.

"That's cool. I'm Jaune. Nice to meet you!"

"Good to meet you too Barfboy." Naruto responded making Ruby chuckle while Jaune

sulked a bit.

"All I'm saying is that airsickness is a much more common problem than people realize." Jaune stated while the three new friends were walking along a path in Beacon. " I'm far from the only one who gets sick."

"Yeah, Jaune but most people who do carry pills for that. That's probably why you were the only one redecorating floor of the bullhead." Naruto laughed at his new friends expense.

Seeking to change the subject both for the sake of Jaune and her stomach, Ruby pulled out her weapon, a scythe that was almost twice her size, causing Jaune to flinch away while Naruto just looked impressed that she could wield such a large weapon. "So I've got my baby Crescent Rose, how bout you guys?" Naruto motioned to Jaune who was still staring at Crescent Rose dumbstruck.

"What is that?"

"Crescent Rose is a collapsible Sniper-Scythe." Seeing that Jaune still looked a bit

confused she simplified it. "It's a scythe that's also a gun."

"Oh... Cool! I've got umm... These." He pulled unsheathed his sword as he pulled out a collapsible shield, causing Ruby to stare.

"What do they do?"

"Well umm... The sword cuts things and the shield can collapse down when I get tired of holding it."

"But wouldn't it still weigh the same amount?" Ruby pointed out as Jaune looked downcast.

"Yes, yes it does."

"Well I admit I may have gone a bit overboard designing my baby." Ruby tried to make Jaune feel better while looking fondly at her scythe and petting it. Naruto thought it looked like she was treating it like a favorite pet.

"Wait you mean you built that thing?"

"Yeah all Signal students build their own weapons. How'd you get yours?"

"Well its a hand me down. My great-great-great-grandfather used it in the war." Jaune rubbed his head in embarrassment.

"Well I like it! Not many people have an appreciation for the classics now a days." Ruby claimed, trying to make Jaune feel better, before turning to her other new friend. "What about you, Naruto, what do you have?"

"Well, I actually have a couple weapons but I guess I can show off one right now." As he spoke he reached in his trench coat before his hand came back out holding the handle of a Tetsubo that kept expanding as more of it came out from under the coat to the point where it was clear that the 7 foot studded war club could not have fit under the coat without being obvious. "Say hello to Oni no Ikari, a seven foot, 90lb. extendable tetsubo with a metal core under quebracho wood sheathing with studs that go through and connect to the center." Ruby looked somewhat impressed with the massive weapon and Jaune looked intimidated by the club that was larger than any of them were tall. "A few years ago a friend of mine bet me that I couldn't make a weapon any more blunt and unsubtle than I was at the time so I made this. I didn't get the joke until after I finish making it but it turned out pretty well." After talking he put the massive weapon back under his coat where it promptly disappeared, much to Jaune's confusion. "So where are we headed anyway?"

Hearing the question both Jaune and Ruby froze and looked at each other before pointing and speaking at the same time. "I don't know I was following Jaune/Ruby."

Naruto just face palmed and chuckled. "Lovely."

"Ruby! Come here I saved you a spot!" Coming into the meeting area for first year orientation the three were immediately greeted with a call from the blonde that Naruto had seen ruby with back on the bullhead. Hearing her ruby grabbed Naruto's arm and started dragging him with her.

"Bye Jaune! Come on Naruto you can meet my sister! Hey Yang this is Naruto! He's nice and doesn't ditch people unlike someone. He helped me after I exploded after you ditched me." Ruby introduced Naruto as she pouted and he waved at the newly introduced Yang.

"Thanks for looking out for my baby sister Foxy. But really Rubes, you exploded over me leaving you alone for a little while? It wasn't really that bad was it?"

"No, I mean I literally exploded! I tripped over some crabby girls luggage and then she was yelling and waving a dust vial and I sneezed and then we exploded and there was fire and ice and I think maybe a little lightning, and then she kept yelling and I just wanted her to stop yelling and-"

"YOU!" Ruby jumped in shock away as an angry Weiss interrupted her, landing in Naruto's arms as he caught her.

"-oh god its happening again." Ruby, realizing who was yelling at her hid her face in her hands.

"Oh god you really exploded didn't you." Yang deadpanned as she face palmed, realizing that her socially awkward sister wasn't making any of it up.

Naruto, figuring this would be a good time to clear the air between the angry heiress and the girl currently hiding in his arms decided to interject. "Nope, it's all true but most of it wasn't really her fault. She got knocked over by a couple other students and fell over Weiss' bags, knocking a few over. The heiress, badly overreacting, pulled out one of her Dust vials from a secure Dust case and began waving it under your sisters nose causing her to sneeze and explode. Pretty avoidable and mostly Weiss' fault."

Yang took the opportunity to try to make amends. "Great so how about we agree to all bee a bit more careful and put it behind us so we can all be friends?"

"Yeah and we can hang out!" Ruby seeing that she had support joined the conversation from her perch.

"Great Idea! And then we can go get out and get our nails done and talk about boys like tall blonde and fuzzy!" She replied, pointing at Naruto, who Ruby finally realized was holding her, causing the girl to blush and get out of his arms before responding.

"Really?"

"No." Weiss deadpanned before walking away.

"Well, that coulda gone better." Yang and Ruby just nodded their agreement.

Alright theres ch1 so please review with any suggestions. Not sure on a pairing or if there will be any citrus content but if there is it wont be for a while. I have a few ideas for other weapons but feel free to make suggestions. Naruto may seem somewhat oc but that will be explained, as will any other questions that were deliberately raised (how'd he pull a 7ft club out from under his coat?). His semblance I already have planned so I don't need suggestions on that but if I do decide to bring in other Narutoverse characters I will being taking suggestion for their Semblances and weapons.


	2. The Forest and the Power

Okay as I was writing this I felt like I was bashing Jaune. I'm not doing it on purpose. It's just how I feel about Jaune and how he comes across. And interactions of his with the other characters other than Naruto are mostly unchanged. I'm not bashing, he's just that dumb this far. And what kind of idiot goes to a combat school without any real training?

Review answers

Paradoxically Abstract- it will be primarily a third person POV following Naruto but it will cut away to other characters at times for things I think help the story, such as the conversations between Ozpin and Glynda in this chapter.

Massone22- I like the zanmato and Shizen no tamashi ideas so I may use them with a tweak or two (mainly changing it to a regular rifle instead of a musket because I personally dislike muskets and I feel that there is no reason for a single shot weapon given the tech level of remnant). As for the dragon blade, I may use it but I don't really like using ideas someone else has already done and 'Naruto the Dragon Hunter' by fairy tail dragon slayer is a great story about Naruto in remnant with the dragon blade. Like I said I may use something similar but I don't know yet.

Also this usually won't be a daily update story. Insomnia sometimes kicks my ass and last night I wrote this entire chapter instead of staring at my ceiling. It may happen again though so there won't be a set schedule for updates, but I will try for at least one a week.

Already put a disclaimer in the first chapter and nothing has changed.

After Ozpin's short speech they were told they would be sleeping in the ballroom that night and so seeing as it was already dusk they began preparing for the night. Yang having wandered off came back and crashed down by Ruby.

"It's like a big slumber party!"

"I don't think Dad would approve of all the boys, though."

Yang, looking at several guys who were going around without shirts to try and impress the ladies in the room simply chuckled. "I know I do! So what's that" Yang asked seeing Ruby typing something on her scroll.

"Oh, just a letter to the gang back at Signal. I promised to tell them all about Beacon and how things are going."

"Aw, that's so cuuuute!" Yang teased before getting hit in the face with a thrown pillow.

"Shut up! I didn't get to take my friends with me to school! It's weird not knowing anyone here!"

"What about Naruto and Jaune? They're... nice! There you go! Plus two friends! That's a two hundred percent increase!"

"Pretty sure Weiss counts as a negative friend. Back to one…"

"No such thing as a Negative friend Ruby. Just enemies and I wouldn't count as one just yet. She may surprise you." Hearing a third voice Ruby and Yang look up to see Naruto, now wearing just a pair of shorts, showing his lean yet extremely well toned build covered in what looks like tattoos showing various Grimm. On his chest he has a Death Stalker, its pincers extended onto each pec with its stinger just below his collarbone and its lower body extending to the bottom of his rib cage. Down each arm is half of a King Taijitu, with the center going over his shoulders and the back of his neck, and the heads being on his forearms just below the elbows. Across his lower back was a fox-like Grimm neither girl recognized with nine large tail arrayed behind it as it breathe fire that covered part of it from view. On his upper back, across his shoulder blades was a Giant Nevermore. The only tattoo he had that wasn't a Grimm was a spiral surrounded by kanji characters on his stomach, with the center of the spiral being where his belly button would be if he had one. While none of the tattoos looked that old you could tell that the King Taijitu was much newer and actually looked to be only a few days old.

Yang took a moment to enjoy the view before commenting. "Nice ink Foxy, got some stories to go with them?"

Naruto seemed to hesitate for a moment before responding. "You could call them… milestones I guess. Important kills in a way."

"So what's the fox? Never even heard of a grimm like that before."

"You most likely never will. No ones ever seen one like him and we hope to never see one again. He appeared the day my Semblance was activated and was the first Grimm I ever killed. They called it Kurama, the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Destroyed over half the village I was born in before being destroyed. It's not an event I like talking about."

"Hate to pry but why? Sounds like it would be a story to brag about if you took down something that strong."

"Let's just say that a lot of orphans were made that day and drop it, alright?"

"Oh…Um… Sorry." Yang, realizing what Naruto meant dropped it and changed the subject. "So where are you from anyway? I don't remember you from Signal."

"Originally from an island east of Atlas, but I went to school in Atlas itself. Wanted get away from home and wasn't picky enough about where to go, so I wound up in one of the worst places to be a Faunus. After graduation I figured a change of scenery was a good idea and I had heard that Ozpin is pretty liberal about Faunus rights, so I came here."

As Naruto stops talking to set up his sleeping bag, Ruby notices Blake nearby reading. Yang, seeing Ruby recognize her decides to help her sister make another friend. "You know her?"

"Not really. She saw what happened this morning, but left before I could say anything."

"Well, now's your chance!" Naruto noticing where Yang is dragging Ruby chuckles and waves to Blake who mouthed 'Traitor' before bracing herself with her book before the loud sisters arrive. Naruto just laughs and settles down and prepares for bed, listening to the conversation between the girls until Weiss came over and started yelling.

After waking up before almost anyone else Naruto ate, checked his weapons ad equipment and then decided to do some warm-ups before the initiation test, meeting up with the others on the cliff when the call went out for the first years to meet for the test. After everyone is on a launch pad, with Naruto between Ruby and Jaune, Ozpin begins his speech.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of 'teams.' Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... Today."

"What? Ohhh…"

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well."

Hearing Ruby groan, Naruto looked at the dismayed girl and whispered to her. "Don't worry little Red. I'm sure your sister and I will try to find you. I'd prefer to work with someone I get along with personally." Ruby, somewhat consoled, smiles back at him.

"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years. Due to there being an odd number of students there will be one team of three."

"Whaaaat?!"

"Well that might make things somewhat difficult but I think I can manage. Just hold tight after you land Ruby."

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die." At this Naruto hears Jaune laugh nervously then gulp loudly and wonders if his new friend is really suppressing his aura or if he is possibly the dumbest person he knows.

"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

"Yeah, um, sir?" Jaune is looking very nervous and Naruto is wondering even more about his fellow blonde.

"Good! Now, take your positions."

"Uh, sir? I've got, um... a question. So, this landing... strategy thing... Uh, wha-what is it? You're, like, dropping us off or something?" Naruto sees Ozpin smirk slightly behind his coffee mug and wonders what's going on.

"No. You will be falling."

"Oh, uh, I see... So, did you, like, hand out parachutes for us?"

"No. You will be using your own 'landing strategy.'"

"Uh-huh... Yeah. So, what exactly is a landing strategYYY!…" The entire time he had been asking about what a landing strategy was, the students had been getting shot off the cliff by the spring loaded platforms they were standing on, with Jaune somehow not noticing, until he was shot off mid-sentence. While the students were flying through the air and Jaune was rapidly figuring out what Ozpin meant by a landing strategy, Glynda approached Ozpin

"I'm not sure the wisdom of allowing that boy entrance to the school given what we know of him." She stated as she looked over her scroll to watch as the various students flew through the air.

"Jaune Arc? He may not have the qualifications he pretends to, but he has great potential, I can feel it."

"Him as well, but I was actually speaking of Naruto Uzumaki. His family's power is supposedly a risky one and could put the students around him at grave risk. I noticed while checking the ballroom that he has gained another mark."

Oh? I wasn't aware of that. What was it?"

"A King Taijitu. Plus he has received a title in Atlas much as Miss Nikos did in Mistral."

"Interesting, but nonetheless I believe he can control his power and use it for the benefit of all, just like his mother did. She was one of the finest huntresses I've ever trained and I can already see that he has the potential to surpass her."

"If you are sure about him."

As soon as he was launched, Naruto's jacket and shirt glowed gold before they disappeared, followed by the glow concentrating on his shoulder blades and growing until it seemed to form wings of light. As soon as the wings of light were formed the glow faded showing that he had grown a pair of pitch black wings just like the ones on a Nevermore.

Spreading his new 12ft wingspan he glided to where he saw Ruby go into the trees after she hit an unlucky bird. Slowing down just before hitting the tree line, he hovered for a moment over a large branch while his wings glowed again, the glow shifting to surround his torso before fading to reveal his shirt and coat had reappeared. Looking down through the branches he spotted Ruby and jumped down a few feet away from her, causing her to jump in shock when he suddenly appeared next to her.

"Hey Ruby, how was the flight?"

"Recovering from the surprise she glared at him, causing him to laugh which made her glare even harder. "Don't just appear like that! And what's so funny?"

"hahaha… Ruby. Don't glare. Your too cute for it to be intimidating. It's like being growled at by a puppy. You know they're trying but it just aint gonna work."

"Hmpf.. Fine. I guess we're partners then?"

"Seems like it. You good to get moving?"

Instead of responding, Ruby just turned and started walking. Still laughing, Naruto put his hands in his pockets and followed.

After a few minutes of walking the duo heard the bushes rustling to their side. Prepping for a fight, Ruby pulled out her scythe while once again pulled his tetsubo out from under his coat. They relax immediately as Weiss stumbled out in front of them.

"Hey Weiss" Ruby called, hearing Ruby and seeing the two of them, she turned around and walked away. A few seconds later Naruto could hear Jaune talking to her before he heard her start coming back towards them. "You came back!"

Weiss ignored Ruby's greeting and just walked past them, grabbing ruby by her hood and dragging her along behind her. "By no means does this make us friends." Naruto simply chuckles as he follows along behind the two his tetsubo resting across his shoulders. "Now come along! I will not have my mission delay because you were two too slow. I swear if I get a bad grade because of your-" Suddenly Ruby appears in front of her, causing her to stop. From Naruto's viewpoint he can see that she disappeared in a burst of Rose petals before reappearing in front of Weiss. "What the?"

"Don't have to worry about me! I'm not slow, see?" She stated as Grabbed Weiss by the shoulder. "Weiss, just because I don't exactly know how to deal with people doesn't mean I don't know how to deal with monsters! You're about to see a whole different side of me today, Weiss, and after it's all over, you're going to be like, 'Wow! That Ruby girl is really, really cool... and I wanna be her friend!'"

Having said her part she then disappeared in another flash of petals causing Weiss to wave her hands in front of her to get them out of her face. You may be fast, but you still excel at wasting time! Ruby?" Still looking around she notices several sets of red eyes glowing in the seemingly darker forest. "Ruby?"

"No worries Weiss, ya still got me here. And I'm sure little Red won't be gone long. Now I may not have a speed semblance but fighting is one thing I am very, very good at." Saying this as six Beowulves come out of the bushes around them, he swings Oni no Ikari while pressing a button on the handle. Mid-swing the tetsubo separates the 1foot sections each connected to each other by a two foot metal cable, slamming into a pair of beowulves before crushing them against a tree. Channeling his aura into the cable he swings the weapon back the other direction, crushing a third grimms skull before pressing a second button on the handle retracting the weapon before slamming it down onto skull of a fourth grimm that had charged while he dealt with the others.

Now with only two Grimm left Weiss, determined to prove that she too could fight charged one and skewered it on her dust rapier before turning to the last and preparing a blast of fire dust only for Ruby to appear in front of it slicing it in half. Too late to stop the attack, Weiss swung to the side lighting a tree on fire.

"Go team!" Ruby cheered, realizing they had just taken down half a dozen beowulves in about as many seconds. She went for a high five with Naruto before noticing Weiss stomping up to her.

"You Idiot! Why did you jump in front of me like that? I could've killed you!" Weiss began to stomp off into the woods, not even checking if the others were following.

Naruto and Ruby watched her walk off for a few seconds before Naruto turned to Ruby and spoke. "Hey Ruby?"

"Yeah Naruto?"

"Think she knows she's going the wrong direction?"

"I don't think she would go the wrong way on purpose."

"Think she would listen if I told her?"

"Probably not but let's try anyway."

"Alright let's catch up to Princess then."

It turned out that Weiss did not; in fact want to listen to her teammates, convinced that she knew where she was going and that they did not. So, twenty minutes later we find Weiss still leading group in what Naruto knew due to his sense of smell was actually a decent sized circle with Ruby. They had just arrived back at the tree Weiss had burned down in the beowulf fight when she finally admitted to herself she was completely lost.

Seeing her slump at the realization, Naruto decided it was time to get them moving in the right direction. "Alright the cliff is back in that direction so if we head this way we should be heading in the right direction. I figure we move that way for a bit and then one of you climbs a tree to get a better view. Sound like a plan to you two?"

"It… sounds like a good plan." Weiss conceded through clenched teeth.

"Ruby, sound good?"

"Better than wandering in circles." Clearly even the ever chipper Ruby was starting to get frustrated with Weiss if even she could be a little snippy. Fortunately Weiss realized she had probably earned that, though she would never admit it.

"Great, let's get moving before we run into something actually dangerous. I'd rather not be out here all day." And so they went, moving through the trees directly away from the cliff they had been sent flying from. Naruto was surprised that they hadn't run into anything other than the small Beowulf pack they had destroyed but didn't speak for fear of jinxing it. A few minutes later Naruto figured they had probably moved far enough that they may be able to see something from the tree tops and called the girls over to a larger tree. "Alright which of you wants to climb up and take a look?"

"Ooh. I'll go! I'll be right back!" Seemed like Ruby was back to chipper as she started climbing the tree, followed by Weiss who was grumbling about making sure she didn't miss anything. A minute or so later Ruby called back down. "I can't see anything but a small clearing up ahead so far but I'm going to go higher to see if I can see anything I can see anything from the very top."

"Alright but be careful, don't need a Nevermore thinking you look like lunch." He responded before heard what sounded like nervous laughter from Ruby followed by the sound of a Giant Nevermore cry and giant wing beats directly above him mixed with both girls screaming as the sound started to move away from him. "OUMDAMMIT!" Realizing from the sounds that the girls were somehow ON the Nevermore he started sprinting towards the clearing Ruby had mentioned, his coat and shirt once again glowing before being replaced by giant black wings. Just as could see the clearing ahead of him a pair of beowulves reared up in front of him. Not even flinching he lowered his head, folding his wings in front of him before using the like a plow and simply bulldozing the two grimm out of his way before flicking the wings back behind him, firing razor-sharp feathers into the forest all around him. The barrage instantly shredded the two Grimm as he reached the clearing and jumped into the air, beating his wings to get enough altitude to exactly what trouble his teammates had gotten themselves into. Cresting the top of the trees he could see the Nevermore lazily gliding away, his teammates hanging on for dear life as the Grimm was now nearly twice as high up as the cliff they had been shot off of. "Dammit I wish I could handle a full shift. Just have to rescue them as is I guess. Oh look the temple. Guess one good thing came out of this. And Ruby's falling. Wonderful." Seeing that his young friend had fallen off the birdlike Grimm, Naruto beat his wings harder before pulling them in to dive, angled to intercept the girl before she hit the trees. He reached her just in time, flaring his wings out to break his speed before it was both of them smashing into the ground. As he landed, he heard something go flying past above hi and what sounded like a little girl screaming but strangely the voice reminded him of Jaune.

"Well, that was unexpected." Looking around the small ruined Temple he spotted the source of the voice, a gob smacked Yang who was staring at his wings. "So do I call you Foxy or Birdy?" Blake however looked thoughtful before asking her question.

"Uzumaki?" She asked, as if that one word answered all the questions she had. And as soon as he nodded it did for her. Unfortunately for those who still had questions they were interrupted by the sound of explosions accompanied by what sounded like an Ursa roaring in pain. They readied themselves, a soft glow surrounding Naruto's hand before expanding into his tetsubo as he pulled it out of thin air. Seconds later an Ursa charged into the clearing before collapsing, followed by a pink haired girl jumping off its back.

"Aww.. It's broken." The strange girl looked at the massive grimm sadly for a moment before a black haired boy with several pink streaks through it also emerged from the woods and hunched over, panting.

"Nora, don't ever do that again." As he finished speaking he looked up and realized that Nora was no longer next to him and was now dancing around in the temple with a golden rook chess piece on her head, singing about being queen of the castle. "Nora!" Hearing him call her she stops dancing, salutes and then returns to his side with a call of 'Coming ,Ren!' telling the others what the boy's name is.

The others, meanwhile just watched, stunned before Blake spoke for all of them. "Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Before anyone could respond they heard a shriek from the side, followed quickly by a tall redhead with a sword and shield coming running out of the woods chased by a Death Stalker, which was doing it's best to smash the agile girl as she repeatedly ducked, rolled and jumped over the massive claws. Blake speaks up again as they ready to help the girl. "Did she run all the way here being chased by a Death Stalker?"

Yang being fed up with the insanity flares her power for a second before yelling. "STOP! I can't take it anymore! Can everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?!"

Naruto just looks up before answering. "Umm sure, Weiss should be able to hang on that long." Yang, not understanding, looks at him only to see him pointing up to where Weiss is still hanging on to the Nevermore's talon.

"RUBY! How could you leave me?!" Weiss screamed from the air.

"I told you to jump!"

Blake, still watching simply deadpanned to Ruby. "She's going to fall."

"She'll be fine."

A second later Ren joined the conversation by pointing out the obvious to them. "She's falling." Naruto prepared to jump and catch her before he relaxed, seeing Jaune preparing to leap out and grab her and think the boy had a plan. Yang noticing the same thing lacked his misplaced confidence.

"20 lien says he forgets gravity" she offered, confusing Naruto.

"How do you forget gravity?"

"Like that." Sure enough, after catching Weiss they both paused in midair for a few seconds, just long enough for Jaune to deliver a cringe worthy pick-up line, before they both began falling again. Naruto, still confused, just watched as the two landed; with Jaune landing face first and flattening against the ground before Weiss landed on the groaning boys back.

"I have no idea how he did that but that midair stall probably saved them both from serious injury" Naruto pointed out while musing on how the hell Jaune managed to temporarily defy gravity, not realizing that it was due to Jaune's stupidity somehow being strong enough to temporarily warp the laws of physics. 'Maybe it has something to do with his semblance? Hmm… I'll ask later, bigger fish to fry for now.'

He was fortunately distracted by the redhead landing next to them, causing Jaune to call out to her from under Weiss "Pyrrha!"

Hearing her partner Pyrrha looked around before spotting Weiss' temporary chair "Jaune!"

"Great! The gang's all here! Now we can die together!" Yang said, realizing that the nine of them now had two giant Grimm to deal with. "What about you Foxy? You've taken out some of these before; think you can give a demonstration on how?"

"Not the way I used before. I won't be able to use that method for some time. If we waited for that to be ready we would be long dead before I could destroy either one. I could probably take on the death stalker with something else but if it fails the best case scenario is one of you carrying me as we run away."

"Not if I can help it!" Ruby, not hearing or not caring, decided to act instead of waiting around and let out a war cry before charging the Death Stalker, her scythe raised. Naruto, seeing what his partner was doing, chased after.

"Ruby, wait!"

Unfortunately, the girl ignored her sister and, reaching the scorpion-like Grimm jumped before swing the large scythe at the Grimm. Despite her momentum and how sharp the blade was, it didn't even bother the armored Grimm as it swung a claw, both blocking the blow and sending the diminutive warrior flying. Seeing that Plan A wasn't going to work; Ruby shot the Death Stalker in the face, using the recoil to speed her sprint away from the giant monster.

Running towards her, Naruto hears the Giant Nevermore's cry and, hearing rapid impacts on the ground behind him dives for the girl, knocking her down and shielding them both under his wings just as a barrage of feathers strikes the aura-reinforced shield. Straightening up after the impacts stop, he ruffles the temporary appendages, causing half a dozen large spear-like feathers to fall to the ground. Reaching down he grabbed Ruby's hand and hauled her to her feet before tugging her along, trying to get away from the Death Stalker until he felt resistance. Looking back, he was greeted by the sight of Ruby being choked by her hood, which he saw was pinned to the ground by several Nevermore feathers that hit outside of the area he had shielded but were close enough to catch the girl's trailing cape. Letting go before he inadvertently hurt the girl he looked at her. "You alright?"

The girl rubbed her sore throat before responding, "Yeah, need to get free." As she responded, the two turned to the impaled cape and each pulled a feather out before realizing that the Death Stalker was already on them, its stinger shooting towards them already too close for them to free Ruby and dodge. Realizing they wouldn't be able to both get to safety, Naruto grabbed her and hunkered down again behind his wings, pumping his aura into them, hoping he reinforce the limbs enough that the stinger would deflect instead of breaking right through. After several seconds, he opens a gap through the wing to look through and the two see the tip of the stinger only inches from the wing shield. Looking past the tip they realize that the entire stinger and end off the tail are encased in ice.

"You are so childish!" Looking next to them, the pair sees their last teammate with her Rapier impaled in the miniature iceberg that had saved them.

"Weiss...?"

"And dim-witted, and hyperactive, and don't even get me started on your fighting style." Looking from Ruby to Naruto she continues "And I'm not even sure what to think about you sometimes. And I suppose I can be a bit... difficult... but if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do this together. So if you quit trying to show off, I'll be... Nicer." Naruto wasn't sure if he should feel complimented by her apparent inability to find something criticize him for or insulted by his apparent dismissal and shrugged before removing the last few feather spears from Ruby's cape.

"I'm not trying to show off. I want you to know I can do this."

"You're fine." Heart to heart over, the girl turns and walks away, followed by the newly freed Ruby and the amused Naruto as the Death Stalker continues to attempt to escape behind them.

Reaching the group Ruby is immediately crushed in a hug from Yang. "So happy you're okay!"

While the sisters were having their moment, the others were watching the Grimm; though no one as carefully as Jaune who was starting to look like he was about to panic as he noticed the giant nevermore starting to circle back. "Guys? That thing's circling back! What are we gonna do?"

"Look, there's no sense in dilly-dallying. Our objective is right in front of us." Weiss stated as she pointed to the pedestals and their chess pieces.

"She's right. Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the cliffs. There's no point in fighting these things." Ruby, agreeing with Weiss walked over to the pedestal holding the second golden knight piece to match her sisters as Jaune grabbed the second golden rook.

"Run and live - that's an idea I can get behind!" Jaune stated as the group left the temple.

Seeing the Death Stalker begin to crack the ice it was stuck in Ren decided to speak up, "Time we left!"

"Right. Let's go!" Naruto, seeing the group moving towards a ravine with a ruin complex with several bridges, took up a rearguard in case the Death Stalker caught up. Seeing the Nevermore circling back again, the group took cover in various alcoves and behind pillar so the Grimm couldn't pick them off with feather volleys. Seeing the Death Stalker burst out of the trees as something large started shaking the trees from the opposite side called out to the others. "We need to move! Pyrrha's friend caught up and he brought company!"

Hearing him, the group broke out of cover just as a smaller second death stalker came barreling out of the tree line towards them. Fortunately it was still on the other side of the clearing so by the time it reached them they had reached the bridge started to cross, which stopped it since the bridge wasn't big enough for either death stalker. It looked like things were finally looking up until they hit the halfway point, where disaster struck in the form of the Nevermore ramming the bridge, smashing it and forcing the group to separate, with Ren, Blake, and Pyrrha stuck with the death stalkers while everyone else made it across. Fortunately for those trapped, only one of the giant scorpions could reach them at a time and they didn't seem to be interested in sharing, so the second one to show up was stuck behind the slightly larger first one.

Jaune, Nora and Naruto realized at the same time that the other group needed help badly and as Nora prepared to launch Jaune and herself over, Naruto called to her. "Nora! You guys take the big one! I'll hold off the smaller one while you take it!"

Seeing her nod Naruto steeled himself for something he hated doing but had no choice. Jumping off the bridge, he flapped his wings furiously to get altitude and momentum so that his first strike would hopefully kill or at least cripple the beast. Even as he jumped though, his entire body began to glow, the light only growing until it was almost too bright to look at. Just as he reached the other side of the ravine and was almost 40 feet in the air above the smaller death stalker, the glow began expanding rapidly, taking the form of a massive death stalker as he began to fall and his momentum continued to build. Halfway down the glow stopped, revealing the form of a massive and truly ancient Death Stalker; larger than either of the ones trying to kill them, it's armor scarred in countless places and the same spiral symbol that Naruto wore on his back engraved on both claws and either side of the stinger. Sensing the incoming attack the smaller Death Stalker tried to move to the side and avoid it but still had two legs on its left side crushed reducing its mobility. Taking advantage of this Naruto immediately scuttled sideways, keeping his larger form on the side of the Grimm where it was unable to fight him effectively. As he strafed it, he lashed with his pincers, slamming the his left into the smaller death stalker's own pincer and head to prevent it from turning fast enough to engage him while his right smashed a third leg and then grabbed and crushed the last one, crippling the and preventing from moving at all other than slowly attempting to spin itself with it's right legs. Realizing that it wouldn't be able to turn in time, the smaller Grimm lashed out with its stinger, attempting to smash through Naruto's armored face area. Expecting the blow to come, Naruto was ready and reacted by grabbing the stinger in his claw and then dragging it down to the ground. Hissing in pain, the death stalker didn't even see the next blow coming until Naruto's own stinger shot over the captured tail and buried itself in its head, killing it.

As soon as the Grimm collapsed Naruto began to glow again before the glow shrank and died down to reveal him once again in his own body panting. As he collapsed, he saw Ruby finish off the giant nevermore by using her scythe as a sort of reverse guillotine, allowing the Grimm's own weight to decapitate itself as she pulled it up a cliff using a combination of Weiss' glyphs, her own speed and the recoil from her scythe. Relaxing when he realized that the other death stalker was also dead at the other group's hands he allowed himself to collapse until the others were ready to start moving to get out of the forest.

Back on the cliffs, Ozpin and Glynda were silent for a moment, absorbing what they had seen. Glynda Goodwitch had been a professional huntress for nearly twenty years but she had never seen anything like that. A hunter assuming the form of a Grimm in order to combat them? If she hadn't seen it herself she would never believe it. She had of course heard of the infamous ability of the once-proud Uzumaki clan, what professional in their business hadn't? An entire clan seemingly born to fight the Grimm? It sounded too good to be true and so she had assumed it was. She could now understand the title Naruto had gained in Atlas and if the stories on how the clan members gained the powers of a Grimm were true, it was somewhat earned. Before she could think further on the strange abilities the Uzumaki clan had, she was broken from her train of thought by a question from the headmaster.

"Glynda, what did you say that title was that his former school gave young mister Uzumaki?"

"I believe they called him the Grimmeater, professor."

"Fitting, most fitting. It appears we will have a most interesting group this year."

"Professor you say that every year."

"Yes, but this time they are interesting in a good way."

So this chapter reveals Naruto's semblance but doesn't go into any real details about how it works. It probably seems OP at first but trust me there are drawbacks. Large ones. It will not be an instant win button in every situation. It will be explained in story next chapter so wait until team ruwby (which will be the team obviously- credit to whoever came up with that team name first, it's a simple addition and it works awesome) to find out more details. As for where I got the idea, and this may give you ideas as to the drawbacks, it's a mix of several things like the take over magic from the Strauss siblings in Fairy Tail mixed with the Uchiha Susanoo and Attack on Titan's titan shifters. Really, a lot of series have one character who has a way to throw the enemies powers back at them I wanted to do that and at the same time I was thinking of a protagonist who could have all that power without it going to his head and Naruto fits that bill. The things with him switching out clothes and weapons also came from several sources, like Erza's Requip Magic from Fairy Tail, digistruct tech from Borderlands and whatever they call the hammerspace (gunspace?) tech in Ultraviolet. My favorite scene of that movie is when Violet goes through the scanner. "Number of weapons found: Many!" (if you've never seen it go here: watch?v=mI_n_l7sEeY it's 1:14 and good for a laugh)

Couple more things

Oni no Ikari- Oni's Wrath/Rage the wood mentioned (quebracho wood) is the hardest real world wood other a few species of bush that you couldn't really make something out of. It is also known as Axe breaker wood and weighs 77lb/ft3 when most woods used in Japan weigh around half that. That combined with its size is part of why Oni no Ikari weighs so much the rest is the cable and the system to 'fire' it and 'reel it in'

The tattoos- again they will be explained and it has to do with the family power Glynda mentioned which IS his semblance

Some sections where I don't change anything or Naruto isn't there I will be skipping. If I skipped it, then it went the same way as canon (ex the locker room scene, Yang, Ruby and Blake talking at night)

This also covers times that Naruto is there but doing something else so he doesn't really change anything or isn't watching, like in the final fight of this chapter. The fights between team jnpr and the canon team rwby happen like they did in canon with no changes so I didn't describe them. If you don't know what happened in those fights, stop reading fanfics of rwby and go watch the series on

Again please review. It's the best way for me to improve my ideas and writing.


	3. Explanations: A Rise and Fall

Alright, this is a major back-story chapter. We've got the some of Naruto's childhood mentioned, some AU (obviously) Remnant history, the story of the Uzumaki clan's semblance and a bit of clan history I made up. And finally a full explanation of the powers the semblance provides. Prepare for text walls, but I hope you enjoy the world I'm making. This chapter is also a bit longer than what will probably normal but that's because half of it is info dump.

After the battle at the ruins, Naruto could tell that the others had questions for him but he requested that they hold them until later; preferably when they weren't in a Grimm inhabited forest. After taking a moment to catch their breath, the group began to make its way back to the school. Luckily for Naruto, who was still exhausted from the full transformation, the group only ran into a few stray beowulves during the trip. The Grimm were barely an annoyance for the group and they made excellent time due to Pyrrha aiding Naruto until he had recovered enough to keep up on his own. After about fifteen minutes he was able to keep up with the group without help, though he still was in no shape to fight.

Shortly after he had recuperated enough to move under his own power the group reached the cliff and made their way to a lift that they were allowed to use to ascend the cliff. Following that they were taken to a large auditorium/ ballroom for the team announcements, which commenced shortly after since they were the last of the groups to return. Watching the other teams and seeing how they were composed, Naruto saw how they composed and so it was no surprise when teams JNPR and RUWBY were formed. The naming of Jaune and Ruby was a bit of a surprise but he understood the decision with Ruby. While she might not be the best at strategy or tactics yet, she had potential based on what he knew of her plan against the Nevermore and her personality could bring the group together with a little help and training.

Jaune however, he had some serious doubts about. The guy seemed more and more like an idiot who was in Beacon due to a fluke or paperwork mix-up. He had extremely sub-par combat ability and Naruto, having felt a change in the other blonde's aura after the forest, was now pretty sure he hadn't even awakened his aura before arriving at Beacon; which ruled out him having gotten in due to a powerful semblance making up for other shortcomings. He wasn't going to tell the others about his suspicions yet, but he was going to take Jaune aside for a chat when he had a chance. If the other boy really had no actual training, then he needed to improve fast or JNPR's new leader would get himself or all of them killed the first time they saw action unless the NPR portions of the team could Jaune's ass out of the fire.

The ceremony itself had been otherwise uneventful, with the only real interruption being some glares and whispered mutterings when Naruto's last name had been announced. Naruto himself wasn't exactly surprised, given the lengths Atlas had gone to in order to demonize his clan to cover their own actions the name still had a stigma nearly fifty years after its destruction at their military's hands. He didn't let it bother him though, having known that anyone who didn't know the truth would believe what they were told and given the lies he had seen passed as the 'truth' he would be wary of anyone from his clan as well if he didn't know better.

After they had left and were heading to their dorm rooms, Naruto had told the others that he would answer their questions later, when they weren't all exhausted. Too tired to argue, the others had agreed before everyone had retired to their own rooms. On reaching their room however, the newly christened team RUWBY found a problem. They all were all silent for a moment before Blake pointed out the problem.

"We seem to be short one bed." Sure enough, probably because of the unexpected odd number of members to their team the room only had four beds.

Too tired to do anything more long term about it, Naruto simply groaned before holding out a hand and concentrating for a moment. As the other four members of team RUWBY watched, a soft glow spread from his hand before coalescing into the form of a net and fading, revealing a hammock that he then hung in the corner of the room, pegs screwed directly into the wall. "It'll do for tonight and I'll see about something permanent tomorrow. Too tied to really care right now." That taken care of, the five prepared for bed before passing out one-by one.

When he was little, Naruto was never a morning person. He had hated waking up in the morning with a passion. There were few things he hated more. Truthfully he still wasn't all that fond of waking up early, but years of training with his godparents had taught him that it was better to wake up than to find out what happened when you didn't. Jiraiya and Tsunade may never agree on much but one thing they did agree on was that lazy students should be woken up in mildly cruel and very unusual ways. It was a habit that had served him well while he attended school in Atlas and he was once again glad of it now, while Yang, Blake and he covered their heads with pillows and watched Ruby approach the last sleeping member of their team with a whistle. Naruto felt a little bad about it but figured Weiss would recover. Eventually. Watching Weiss fall out of bed due to wake-up by a whistle in her ear, Naruto figured it was worth it.

"Good morning, team RUWBY!" Ruby greeted the grumpy looking heiress.

"What in the world is wrong with you?"

"Now that you're awake, we can officially begin our first order of business."

"Excuse me?" Weiss looked less than impressed as she got up and dusted herself off.

"Decorating!" Yang entered the conversation while holding various items.

"What?!"

"We still have to unpack." She held up a suitcase before it fell open, dumping its contents on the floor. "Aaaand clean."

Weiss didn't look very enthusiastic and glanced back at her bed like she was debating on return to sleep for a while, especially after Ruby noticed and blew the whistle in her face again. "Aaaalright! Weiss, Blake, Yang, Naruto and their fearless leader Ruby have begun their first mission! Banzai!" She did a fist pump before the others except Weiss joined her and cheered with a group fist pump. "BANZAI!"

A while later the group realized that with all of their things unpacked, there wasn't really enough space in the room for their stuff and their bags. After having a quick vote with Weiss losing and Naruto abstaining, the group built two incredibly unsafe looking bunk beds. Seeing Weiss' reaction Naruto assured her he would talk to someone about getting some supplies to make them sturdier so he didn't lose a teammate to a highly embarrassing death by collapsing bunk bed. The room taken care of for now, Ruby then took out her scroll, checking the team's schedule that she had been emailed to then distribute among the team. She didn't get far before they realized that they had barely five minutes to get to their first class of the day. The girls immediately ran out of the room, Naruto following after pausing long enough to close their and team JNPR's doors after the other team followed them, realizing from the shouts that they were also late to their first class. As they ran through the courtyards to the first class they passed Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch causing the latter to check her watch and raise an eyebrow at the two teams' antics while the former simply sipped his coffee.

"Monsters! Deeeemons... Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey! Ha-ha!" Having taken front row seats for the last class of the day, most of team RUWBY was less than impressed with professor Port so far. Blake and Yang are sitting up and paying attention to the boring man, Weiss was taking notes on what the professor was babbling about, Naruto was mostly ignoring the professor while copying the various diagrams on Grimm that were posted behind the man; and Ruby has her head propped in her hand as she takes a quick nap until she was woken back up by Port telling his terrible joke, which received a cricket-filled silence as a result. "Uhhhh... And you shall too, upon graduating from this prestigious academy! Now, as I was saying: Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world! Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces! And that's where we come in. Huntsmen! Huntresses..." At this the professor paused to wink at Yang, causing the buxom blonde to quietly groan in discomfort while Naruto chuckled at his teammate's plight, causing her to give him a mock glare. "Individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves! From what, you ask? Why, the very world!"

"Ayyyy-yep!" One brave and enthusiastic student stood and shouted his agreement until everyone looked at him like he was crazy, causing him to sit back down in embarrassment.

"That is what you are training to become. But first: A story. A tale of a young, handsome man... Me! When I was a boy..." As the professor began telling the class his story, he lost what little attention most of the class was paying in the first place. Despite most of the class paying no attention at al he continued talking, his words fading in and out through their stupor. "...Despite smelling of cabbages, my grandfather was a wise man. 'Peter', he told me..." Weiss, meanwhile noticed that Ruby was very focused on her paper for a minute or two before lifting it to show it to the rest of the team: a drawing a ball-with-limbs-and-a-head drawing of the teacher with stink lines coming from him and 'Professor Poop' written underneath. Yang, Blake and Naruto laughed while Weiss looked annoyed.

Realizing he has completely lost the class's attention, Port cleared his throat several times "Ah-heh-hem! In the end, the Beowulf was no match for my sheer tenacity, and I returned to my village with the beast in captivity and my head held high, celebrated as a hero!"

The teacher took a bow as Weiss was slowly getting more and more frustrated with Ruby's antics.

"The moral of this story? A true Huntsman must be honorable!" Ignoring the boring lecture, Ruby was balancing an apple on a book on her pencil held only by her finger while making a silly face. Naruto was somewhat impressed by the feat but could tell that Weiss was less than amused and he could see trouble brewing.

"A true Huntsman must be dependable!" Ruby had fallen asleep in class on the first day of the year.

"A true Huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise!" Naruto face palmed as he saw Ruby not-so-subtly picking her nose, while Weiss' was getting more pissed with every passing moment.

"So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"

Realizing that he might be able to help head off some trouble for his new leader before it had a chance to explode, Naruto beat Weiss to the punch for whatever it was the professor had planned and volunteered himself. "Not sure about wise and well-educated but I'm working on those bits and I think I got the rest down pretty well."

"Well, then, let's find out! Step forward, and face your opponent!" After saying that he turned and gestured to a large metal crate in the corner, the occupant of which chose that moment to snort and rattle the crate. "Go prepare yourself and return that you may demonstrate your skills!"

"I'll be fine. I've got everything I need right here. Besides I promised some explanations to some people and seeing as their all here I think ill give a small demonstration beforehand. Anything allowed right?" Seeing him take the floor, teams RUWBY and JNPR lean forward from their spots at the front and back of the room, interested in seeing more of what his semblance could do.

"So long as you don't destroy the room or endanger your classmates, then yes."

Getting the confirmation, Naruto stands in the middle of the cleared area at the front of the room before he starts to glow. As the glow fades, it reveal him standing in front of the class wearing the pants and boots of his combat uniform but with his torso bare, revealing his tattoos. "Don't worry, I'll keep it small." That said, he rolls his neck and stretches before taking a stance as Port makes his way to the door of the cage.

Naruto looked over to his team to see Yang raise a fist. "Goooo, Naruto!"

Blake produced a small flag with 'RUWBY' on it from somewhere and waved it, quietly cheering. "Fight well!"

Ruby made up for her teammate's volume with her own loud cheering. "Yeah, represent teeeeam RUWBY!" Weiss meanwhile was managing to look both annoyed and intrigued at the same time.

Seeing that Naruto was ready, Port swung his axe down, breaking the latch on the cage door and allowing it to swing open. As soon as it was open a Boarbatusk charge out, trying to trample Naruto, who took a diving roll to evade to the side. Seeing the boarbatusk hop into the air and curl up as it began to spin before hitting the ground it a spinning charge, Naruto channeled his aura to his right arm, hips and lower back which began to glow before expanding rapidly, the glow on his arm forming a large claw while his hips and lower back sprouted the four segmented legs and the stinger tipped tail of a death stalker. The extra appendages solidified and the glow faded just as the boarbatusk shot forward. Swinging the claw forward and bracing all six of his legs he deflected the rolling Grimm into the air before leaning forward; allowing his tail to rocket forward, the aura reinforced stinger smashing right through the boarbatusk's armored hide before impaling the creature. Most of the class, having never seen the semblance before, was shocked at the speed and method of the Grimm's destruction. Even Port, team JNPR and the other members of RUWBY were surprised at how quickly and easily Naruto had taken out the Grimm.

As the Grimm disintegrated, Naruto became encased in his glowing aura again, his extra limbs shrinking into him before the glow faded, revealing him dressed in his class uniform once again. He bowed to the class with a wide smile, looking like a showman who had just finished an act. The remainder of team RUWBY as well as team JNPR applauded along with professor Port, while most of the rest of the class simply looked shocked at first but shrugged it off after a moment to join. After allowing it to continue for a moment, Port quieted the class before speaking. "Bravo! Bra-vo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true hunter-in-training! I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings, and... stay vigilant! Class dismissed!"

Seeing his team approaching, Naruto smiled before noticing that Weiss still looked annoyed with their new leader. Deciding to see if he could help put the issue to rest before it got worse, Naruto looked to Blake and Yang. "Hey can you two grab JNPR and tell them that if they still want to have that talk, then come on over to our dorm when we get back after dinner? I think Weiss, Rubes and I need to have a talk."

Yang looked between the three before realizing the problem, but seeing Naruto's reassuring nod, knew that her sister would have someone calm and on her side in the discussion to come so she decided to let him handle it for now. "Sure come on Blake, we can try to save them seats." She then walked off, Blake going with her.

The three wandered a while with Weiss stewing, Ruby wondering why Weiss was angry with her and Naruto simply not really looking forward to playing mediator between two women with combat training. He knew that if Jiraiya were here, the old pervert would call him an idiot. And then congratulate him for getting on a team with four attractive young women. Then we would giggle perversely with thinking of how to spin Naruto's situation into a story until someone, usually Naruto or Tsunade if she was there, forced him back to reality. His godfather may be a legendary hunter but the man was an irredeemable pervert any time he didn't have to be serious.

Realizing that they had come to a deserted balcony overlooking the forest, Naruto decided that this spot would be as good as any other for the coming talk. He could smell Ozpin nearby but figured the man likely wouldn't intervene while they hashed out their issues unless it was necessary. He didn't think it would be, but didn't mind backup just in case. Women were unpredictable in the best of circumstances and the last few days had not exactly been low stress for anyone.

"Alright let's get this over with. If we're going to be working together for four years then we need to communicate our problems and deal with them. First off, Weiss, I think you should get it off your chest now; before you explode and do it later louder and meaner."

Ruby, still confused responded first. "Wait, what's wrong with Weiss? Is this about why you seem annoyed?"

Weiss looked surprised that he was calling her out but figured that since she had planned to give Ruby a piece of her mind anyway she might as well, especially since the girl seemed so clueless as to what was bothering her. "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? You're supposed to be a leader, and all you've been so far is a nuisance!"

"What did I do?"

"That's just it - you've done nothing to earn your position! Back in the forest, you acted like a child, and you've only continued to do so!"

"Weiss, where is this coming from? What happened to all the talk about 'working together'? I thought you believed in acting as a team."

"Not a team led by you. I've studied and trained. And quite frankly, I deserve better. Ozpin made a mistake; even Naruto would be a better leader since he at least thinks before acting." Having said what she wanted, she started to walk away before being stopped by Naruto.

"Well now that you've had a chance to talk it's my turn. First, I can't be named a team leader for various reasons that I'm not going into right now. Second, What the hell Weiss? Other than Ruby and Yang, we've all known each other for less than forty-eight conscious hours. Not nearly long enough to make a character assessment beyond the very basics. And even now I can tell you that both you and Ruby have the potential to be leaders-" At this the heiress started to preen while the previously despondent Ruby looked up at hearing that someone had confidence in her, "- but you both have some serious issues to work out before anyone would consider putting you in charge of a group that was going to be seeing any kind of real trials, especially you Weiss." Hearing that, Weiss stopped preening and looked like she was going to start to rant again but Naruto continued before she could start. "Ruby is immature and childish at times, she needs to learn to think before acting, and she needs to take her studies more seriously based on what we've seen today. But, she cares about people, is an excellent fighter, and has the ability to come up with plans on the fly and carry through with them. She also demonstrated that she was not afraid to lead by example and be at the head of the charge, trusting her comrades to have her back. That showed Ozpin many leadership qualities and her flaws can easily be remedied with time. Time that you have not given her since it hasn't even been a full day since the team was formed."

Weiss looked annoyed that the Faunus was apparently taking Ruby's side against her but conceded that he may have a point about the girl. She had not forgotten about his comments about her though. "While I will admit that I may have been a bit… hasty with my judgment on Ruby, I fail to see how I am not suited for leadership."

Naruto just looked at her for a moment before responding. "Weiss. I'm going to be blunt about this. You are acting like a spoiled brat." seeing that the pissed heiress was about to explode he continued before she could start. "I don't know about Ozpin, but when I look at you, I do see potential. But it's currently obstructed by a cold, bitchy exterior that has no problem with putting others down and trampling all over their feelings and you are not exactly gentle about it either. That kind of behavior makes enemies. Lots of enemies. And while it may not seem important to you now, what about later when we then have to work with these people who you have alienated and belittled? It would cause friction that can't be afforded in a combat situation, potentially leading to casualties that could have been avoided. Ruby, on the other hand, despite being one of the most awkward people I know when it comes to social interaction, has already made friends with most of another team and particularly their leader, who you have treated like a pest. And at no point have you demonstrated any real leadership qualities beyond the ability to know how others should behave. And then, when you aren't chosen as leader, you throw a tantrum while accusing someone else of being childish. Real mature. My grandfather once told me that in order to be a great leader, once must first be a great person. That would be a good place to start. Study. Train to get better, stronger, faster and smarter." Seeing the contemplative look on the girl's face, he figured he had gotten through to her and decided to leave and let them sort out the rest between themselves for now. But as he turned, he couldn't resist saying one last thing before he left. "And for Oum's sake get the stick out of your ass! It may help improve your attitude."

As he walked down the hallway heading to the large dining room to get some dinner before his next big discussion Ozpin began walking next to him, silently appraising the teen for a moment before speaking. "That was very well said mister Uzumaki, and covered quite a few of the very points I myself made when deciding the leader of your team. May I ask what gave you such insight into the mind of a leader?"

"When I was little, my grandfather didn't trust me on my own in the village, so he frequently brought me with him to his office so he could keep an eye on me while he worked. I watched a great leader work almost daily from the time I could speak until I was ten. Spend that much time around one and you pick up a few things."

"May I ask who your grandfather was? I knew both of your parents when they attended this academy and I know that they were orphans themselves."

"I call him that because he adopted me and was the man to raise me until I was ten. He was an old man named Hiruzen Sarutobi."

"The founder of the White Fang? I haven't heard of him in nearly thirty years."

"Yeah, the old man wasn't proud of the direction they were going, so when they stopped listening to him and decided that violence should be the first act instead of a last resort he left. He saw the writing on the wall long before most other people did. Took what members would still listen to him and left the kingdoms behind to go home to Konoha on Kasai Shimia. He figured that if he couldn't make all of Remnant a land of equality then he would start small and hope others would follow the example. Eventually became the village leader he was finally making his dream a reality before everything went to shit."

"What happened to him? He was a man I greatly respected growing up and was sad to see leave the political stage. We don't get much, if any, news from outside the kingdoms."

"Seven years ago there was an attempted coup. One of the village elders, a bigoted prick named Danzo who had always hated gramps for being a Faunus, somehow contacted one of gramps' old students and arranged for him to kill gramps in return for something. Gramps beat him but was poisoned during the fight. He… didn't make it. He was a great man who taught me a lot and I hope to one day see his dream of a world where human and Faunus are united become a reality."

"What happened to Danzo and the student?"

"The student, Orochimaru, was the leader of a faction of the White Fang for a while until he was discovered experimenting on children of both races. He was attempting to discover a way to live forever and believed that certain semblances would help; he just needed a way to transfer them to himself first. He and his group left the Fang and he's still out there somewhere. As far as I know he is one of the only people that both the Fang and most governments have a bounty on. And I don't think anyone wants that psychotic pedophile alive. As for Danzo, he was executed two years ago by the Konoha council for a long list of crimes including the failed coup in addition to other things like instigating the genocides of the Uzumaki and Uchiha clans, as well as several hundred counts of kidnapping, brainwashing and enslavement. The public never got a full count of how many deaths that bastard caused but I don't think anyone really wants to count that high. I believe that he will rot in hell for all eternity and that is still too good a fate for him."

"Well, it has been a most enlightening talk mister Uzumaki; I will see you around the campus. Please try to stay out of trouble if at all possible. I've seen in your transcripts that sometimes it has a way of finding you but I hope you won't go looking for it." Having reached the dining hall, the headmaster left the student with some last advice as he departed.

"I'll try professor, but I won't make any promises. You've seen my file. I'm a magnet for a trouble plus there are some things I won't stand for."

"I'm not asking you to compromise your integrity or not defend yourself. Simply avoid what can be avoided and handle everything else intelligently."

After the headmaster left, Naruto had an uneventful dinner before returning to the dorm and sat at a desk. He wanted to get some assigned reading done before everyone gathered for his explanation and he couldn't help thinking he was forgetting something, but couldn't figure out what. He made some progress with the reading until about twenty minutes later when Ruby and Weiss arrived. Seeing as his entire team had gathered he asked Ruby if she could go get team JNPR so that he could tell them all at the same time.

Once she returned with team JNPR and everyone settled on the chairs and beds, all facing him, he started to take off his shirt, to show his torso once again. Before he could start though, Yang spoke up. "Hey Foxy, this may not be the best time but if you're going to be around my baby sister we need to talk about this stripping habit of yours." With the tension broken the girls from both teams realized they were basically watching a well muscled and handsome guy take his shirt off so that they could stare at his chest and back, causing several sudden blushes.

Tension broken, Naruto tried to one up Yang so he walked over to stand directly in front of her before slowly peeling his shirt off over his head as if he was stripping for her. This caused several blushes to intensify, and even Yang was pretty red by the time she pushed him away, laughing. "All you had to do was ask Yang."

"Whatever Foxy. Get talking. How exactly can you grow wings or turn into a giant death stalker?"

"Well first off I guess I should start at the beginning. My name is Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, last of the Uzumaki clan."

Weiss was shocked at that last piece of information. "Wait, you mean like the robotics company, Namikaze Industries?"

"Umm…yeah I'm kinda the heir and I'll probably be CEO after I graduate Beacon. It's not really that important for what we're talking about."

"Not Important?! How is that not important?"

Ruby and several others, who didn't really pay attention to major business news, were lost. "Is that a big deal?"

Weiss just stared at her for moment while she looked sheepish and Naruto was a little embarrassed, as he hadn't expected to be talking about that side of his family. Sighing, Weiss pinched her nose before explaining. "Namikaze Industries is the largest privately owned robotics company in the world and the second largest robotics producer in the world, only beaten by the Atlas military. Almost a quarter of all automated and robotics technology comes from that one company Ruby. It's a VERY big deal. Naruto is technically the richest person in this room. I'm the heiress of SDC, he actually OWNS Namikaze Industries. He's probably the richest person in this SCHOOL!"

"It's also one of the largest Faunus owed companies in the world." Blake supplied from her spot reclining on her bed.

Almost everyone stared at him for a few seconds before Nora broke the silence. "Woowww…Think of all the pancakes he could get!" Everyone stared at her for a moment before laughing at the spacy girl.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment before continuing. "Anyway, I don't really have much to do with running the company right now; I mainly leave it to my god-parents. For what we're talking about it's the other side of my family that's important. Do you guys want the short version with just what the power does or do you want the clan's story on how we got it?" Seeing that his new friends wanted the long version, he got comfortable before starting. "The Uzumaki clan can trace its roots back over seven hundred years, and we've been on the front lines against the Grimm the entire time. Course nowadays 'we' pretty much means me since as far as I know there is only one other Uzumaki alive and she's a med student last I checked. Not much of a clan anymore. Anyway, nobody really knows for sure how we got our ability; but we do know most of how it works and we have a legend. The story that's been handed down is that the matriarch of our clan, Shirube Hikari-" This time he was interrupted by Jaune.

"Wait, you said that she was the matriarch of your clan, right? Why was her name different?"

"Two reasons: First, this happened over seven hundred years ago and we don't know what her actual name was at this point. Shirube Hikari is a title she was given, not a name. It basically means 'the guiding light' or 'the light that guides'. Second, listen to the damn story and I'll tell you." Jaune looked down, a little embarrassed. "Anyway, the story goes that our old home was under siege by a massive army of Grimm and the clan was slowly being overrun, with no hope of escape or survival. Seeing this, Hikari went up to a mountain shrine above the canyon village our clan lived in. Reaching the shrine, she prayed to the dragon-god Ryujin and was granted a vision. It showed her charging a death stalker unarmed. As she reached it in her vision, she struck the Grimm with her right palm. Expecting the god to be mocking her by giving her a vision of her own death, she was amazed when the death stalker shrieked as if it was in agony and began glowing before a vortex came out of her palm before sucking the grimm in. Turning to a pack of beowulves, the vision-Hikari was then engulfed in a golden glow before the glow took on the form of the death stalker she had just absorbed. As the glow faded, it revealed that vision-Hikari had completely transformed into the Grimm before it charged forward, decimating the beowulf pack. Before the vision faded, the vision-Hikari transformed back; showing two matching tattoos in the form of a vortex, one on the palm she struck the death stalker with, and a larger one over her stomach, where a belly button would be. On her back was another tattoo, this one of a death stalker. Awaking in the temple, Hikari found that she now had the two vortex tattoos and understood the gift her god had given her. She left the temple and began to return to the village at the entrance of the canyon only to be ambushed by a death stalker on the way. Trusting in her vision she charged the death stalker and hit it with a palm strike and the vortex appeared, absorbing the beast. She continued down the mountain and when she arrived at the village she was amazed to find that every member of her clan with an unlocked aura had gained a vortex tattoo on their right palm. Elated, she instructed the clan in how to use the gift that Ryujin had granted. Using the new power, the clan destroyed the army of Grimm that besieged their home and the night after the battle, Hikari received another vision. This one showed the clan leaving the village and going east to the coast before sailing to an island, where they built a new village around a large shrine to Ryujin located there. The vision showed he future, where any children born of the clan would inherit his gift. And so when she awoke, Hikari informed the clan of the second vision and, following its instructions the clan moved from its old war torn home and went east. When they had settled on the island the decided that since they had left behind their old home, they would leave behind their old name as well and took the clan name Uzumaki or vortex in honor of the gift that Ryujin had given them. Since then whenever an Uzumaki child has awakened their aura the vortex tattoos have appeared and they had the exact same semblance as far as we can tell. Any questions so far?" Seeing that the only ones with questions so far was Jaune, who was raising his hand like they were in class, Nora and Ruby; he pointed at Ruby.

"You said in the story that they had a tattoo on their palm. Where's yours? And how does that explain how you can make your weapons and armor appear?"

"Well those are both part of how the semblance works so I'll answer those in a second. Jaune?"

"Yeah… that story was like… really detailed, right?"

"Yeah, what's your point?"

"If they remembered all those details, how did they forget the main character's name?"

Naruto just stared at Jaune for a moment before he face palmed, grumbling about obsessive idiots with one track minds. "I have no idea how we lost what her name was; it was seven hundred years ago. Nora, what's up?"

"Was your clan really blessed by a god?" This got some interest from the others as several had wanted to ask but felt it may be rude to question someone's family beliefs. Naruto, however just laughed before responding.

"No idea. All I know is that the odds of a child having the same exact semblance as one of their parents is one in twenty. Now compare that to the Uzumaki clan who, over the course of seven hundred recorded years, has never had a single child who had a different semblance. Before the clan's destruction they used that as a test to determine if someone was really an Uzumaki, it's more reliable than a DNA test. That can be faked, turning into a death stalker can't. One hundred percent of Uzumaki's get the tattoos when they awaken their semblance. So until someone comes up with a better explanation it's what we will stick with. Any other questions about the legend?" Seeing that there weren't, he smiled. "Then the history lesson is pretty much over. So, here's where we can toss legend and get to facts that we know for sure. When an Uzumaki child first awakens their semblance, they used to go through what the clan called the First Meal ceremony, where you fed your first sacrifice into Ryujin's Maw, which is what the clan called the palm tattoo. The first Grimm they absorb is extremely important, because it determines the maximum strength of the Grimm someone can absorb." This time it was Yang who interrupted him.

"What do you mean by the maximum strength they can absorb?"

"Well, let's say a kid awakens their aura in desperation because get attacked by a Beowulf. In order to survive, they use the Beowulf as a first sacrifice. For the rest of their lives, they would never be able to absorb anything stronger than that beowulf was; which would seriously hurt their potential power. So for the most part it was tradition to unlock a child's aura when they turned five, get together a hunting party of twenty or thirty older clan members and take the kid to hunt down something strong in the area. The older hunters would clear the area before restraining the Grimm so that the kid could walk right up and slap it with no real danger."

"Wait they did this with kids? Isn't that dangerous?" Pyrrha was extremely strong for her age, and had been for a while, but she knew that if she had encountered a Grimm when she was that age she would have been eaten with no struggle, any child would.

Naruto just laughed before responding. "Think about it. The kid would be surrounded by at least twenty trained hunters that had the ability to turn into giant nevermores, death stalkers, alpha beowulves, ursa majors and a few even had goliath forms; who's only real job was to protect him. Can you picture a safer way to get someone next to a powerful Grimm? I didn't find listings of a single child lost to Grimm after they started doing things that way unless there was interference."

"Interference?" Nobody liked the sound of that and Ren asked the question.

"About ten years before the clan was destroyed, someone started ambushing first meal ceremonies with the intention to harm, kill or kidnap the kids. No one ever found out who was behind it until about two years ago. We lost more people in ceremonies those ten years than were lost in the hundred and fifty years before that. It was one of the things that led to the downfall of the clan." The others could tell that Naruto was sad talking about the deaths of his clansmen so Blake got the discussion moving again.

"So after the ceremony, what happened?"

"Well, then they would start training to manifest and control their Grimm form. For example, after I absorbed a giant nevermore, I trained to manifest the wings, and then learned to fly with them. In the beginning you can rely on the form's instinct to help you move, but the more of the grimm you manifest the stronger the instincts get. By the time you try a full manifestation, you need to be able to completely ignore the Grimm's instinct and still control the body."

"Why can't you rely on them? Wouldn't the Grimm know how best to move its own body?"

"Yeah they do Jaune, but there's just one big problem with that. What do grimms do?" He watched the boy as he thought about it for a moment, with everyone else beginning to figure it out. They didn't know what Grimm did in the wild! The only time people ever saw Grimm was when they were… attacking… people. Naruto saw the realization as the others saw the problem. "Exactly. They kill and eat humans. That is what their instincts say to do. So yesterday, had I relied one hundred percent on my death stalker form's instincts, you would have been fighting three death stalkers instead of two, until my aura ran out and then I would have been killed easily."

"So wait, whenever you assume the form of a Grimm, you're in a battle of wills with that grimm in order to stay in control of the body?" This time Blake spoke.

"Yeah, so it's a good thing Uzumakis can be some of the most stubborn bastards around. There's a way to reduce the effort required, which also makes it much easier to assume and maintain a full manifestation, but I haven't been able to do it yet." Blake looked curious as to what method could help him so much yet he hadn't done it.

"Why not? It sounds like it would make your semblance much stronger."

"Well, the sacrifice for the first meal ceremony has another name. It's the person's totem form. Once they master it by overpowering it in a battle of wills, that Grimms power is added to the persons in every form. Meaning that subduing the instincts of the other forms requires almost no effort, since an Uzumaki's most powerful Grimm is always their totem. Once they subdue that one, the others will rarely be strong willed enough to fight for control. The only exceptions are when someone has a strong but stupid totem. That mainly happens with Ursi. I've never been able to overpower my totem, so not only does that mean I can't take its form, but it also doesn't help me control any other forms I take. In forms other than the totem's the totem has the job of both maintaining the body and subduing the form's instincts so that the clan member can focus on the fight, making things far easier. Since I don't have my totem to help, I have to multitask at it, meaning that burn through aura that much faster." Ruby looked like she another question. "Yeah, Ruby?"

"What did you mean by maintaining the body, and what happens if someone tried to absorb something stronger than their totem?"

"The body is an aura construct, requiring constant concentration to keep formed. Imagine forming a perfect sphere of wet clay in your hand. Then imagine making sure that sphere doesn't fall apart while you are in the middle of the fight. Now add the sphere actively trying to lash out at anyone nearby, while you are concentrating on keeping it formed and fighting. It gets very tiring, very quickly. And as for someone trying to absorb something stronger than their totem, they die. It is the reason why they try to get the most powerful totem possible. The best case scenario of someone trying to absorb too strong a Grimm is mutual destruction. Sometimes, they absorb the Grimm for a few minutes before the drain kills them, releasing the Grimm. Sometimes, they manage to hold on for a while but no one has ever survived the process. The last example I found of someone attempting to do so was about fifty years ago. An Uzumaki who was attacked by a boarbatusk as a child absorbed it, causing that to be his totem. He was guarding a small village when it came under Grimm attack and he was cut off with a group of children. When they were attacked by a death stalker he absorbed it as a last resort. He died five minutes later from the overload. Took it with him and saved a bunch of kids though, so he probably felt it was worth it."

"How do you know that?" Pyrrha asked wondering how he could guess the thoughts of someone who had died over thirty years before he was born.

"Two things. According to the after action report, the guy could have run from the death stalker and he would have lived but he would have had to abandon the kids. He didn't, instead using a technique he knew would kill him in order to keep protecting them as long as possible. And second, the Uzumaki have lived on the front lines for centuries. The feeling on life was that if you couldn't live long, die well and gloriously. Thirty years and being remembered as a hero who sacrificed himself so that a few kids could live was considered infinitely better than two hundred years and being remembered as the coward who ditched a bunch of kids to save his own skin."

"What do you mean two hundred years? People don't live that long." Weiss rolled her eyes as she pointed out his mistake.

"Remember how I said that once we mastered our totem, we got its powers?" Naruto saw them nod. "Well that includes their lifespan. Grimm don't die of old age. They just continue to get bigger, smarter and stronger as they age. That's why we call the biggest death stalkers ancients. Similarly, Uzumaki who've mastered their totem, sort of just stop aging after a while. The oldest recorded Uzumaki had a Goliath totem and was two hundred and thirty eight when he died in the fall of the clan. Most didn't live nearly that long, due to lifestyle, but it was possible. That's about all that the grimm part of it gives. Ruby wanted to know how I can store equipment with it. Anybody want to ask anything else before I move on?" Seeing that they were still a little stunned by the revelation that he could potentially live for several centuries, he took that as consent to answer the question Ruby had earlier. "Alright so you know that I can expand myself to the size of a death stalker but the way that works is literal. My aura expands from my skin out, meaning that it starts under my clothes. Eventually, someone wondered what the hell happened to whatever they were wearing, so they tried to channel their aura into their clothes and then retract them like they would a manifestation. It worked, which probably left them naked in a training ground and raised a lot of very awkward questions before he explained what happened." At this he paused as there were several giggles and chuckles from his audience. "Eventually, we figured out that by imbuing an object with our aura, we could absorb it, and then manifest it later to use. Since objects don't have a will, they don't require any effort to manifest and maintain. Pretty much as long as I don't move too far away, then it maintains its form. So any weapon or armor I have stored is available at any time. And if something breaks, all I have to do is re-manifest it and it'll be as good as new."

Weiss, thinking of how that could affect some weapons was quick to speak. "Can you absorb and manifest dust?"

"Sort of. Dust works differently. No one has ever figured out why. I can store dust, but I can only manifest as much as I stored. I usually keep a few pounds of each type I use stored so I have plenty when I need it. Same thing with dust based ammo for guns. I usually keep plenty on me in case I need it. Anything else?" It looked like Yang was the only one with a question so he just nodded to her.

"Two actually. You never did tell why you don't have a palm tat. And how exactly do you get the new tattoos?"

"Huh… guess you're right. They're actually connected. Whenever I absorb a Grimm, Ryujin's maw closes. A new Grimm tattoo then flows from Ryujin's stomach, bet you can't guess which tattoo that is, and takes a spot on my body. Once the new tattoo is settled the maw reopens and can be used again and the new Grimm form can be used as well."

Pyrrha looked at him for a minute, as if she was debating with herself about something before coming to a decision. "Naruto, you've said several times that your clan 'fell' or was destroyed. What do you mean by that?"

Naruto looked at the ground for long enough that the others weren't sure he would respond. When he did respond, they could hear the sadness and anger in his voice. "It's exactly as it sounds. Our clan was exterminated about fifty years ago, about a month before the end of the Faunus rights revolution. We had stayed out of the war, as long as no-one tried to take our island we didn't care. We would go where the Grimm were and when we were done we would go home, unless we were paid to stay. The elders decided that we would only join the war if we were forced. And so, while the world burned we did as we have always done. We hunted Grimm. And it was profitable. With so many of the regular forces stretched thin due to the war, everyone had Grimm problems that we were hired to fix. We may not have liked the reason, but we couldn't deny that it was a profitable time. So, to help people that were suffering while we benefited, we opened hospital camps on our island. Any injured were welcome, no matter what side they were from. As long as they didn't bring their war with them onto our island, we would heal them as best we could. However, whenever someone is profiting, someone else will envy and hate them for it. A corrupt council member in Kasai Shimia, the closest nation to us, went to the Atlas war council and bribed several corrupt members in an effort to have them invade. It wasn't difficult to convince a human council that the oldest and most powerful Faunus clan in the world was using its neutrality to build up forces and, with our hospital, place supporters through out the nations so that when the human governments were weakened we could sweep in and take over. So they decided to launch a 'preemptive strike'. They captured several of the hospital transports, killed the crews and loaded them with troops. Then they sailed them right through our defenses, and invaded. Given that our clan had been dwindling due to casualties caused by getting caught in the war and ambushes on our first meal ceremonies, we stood no chance of survival. They killed every Faunus on the island. Both our clan and the wounded from the hospital. The only Uzumakis to survive that day were the ones already off of the island. My mother was with my grandmother acting as the clan head's wife and daughter to discuss treaties with several allies in Vale at the time, so they survived. Atlas then spread 'gathered intelligence' that not only were we planning to take advantage of the weakened governments to take over but that we worshipped the Grimm, sacrificing people to them in order to be granted their form. With anti faunus sentiment already so high, it didn't take much to convince people that the clan of grimm hunters that had protected them were actually just biding our time until we could take over and sacrifice them all to our 'true masters'. My grandmother died protecting my mother from a mob before mom was taken in by the founder of the White Fang, back when it was about peaceful protests for our rights instead of just killing and robbing humans. Anything else that's quick? It's getting late and I'm getting tired of talking so much."

Blake spoke up, asking a question that several of others had probably thought of but none had asked. "If the clan was destroyed, how do you know all this? It doesn't seem like you could just walk into a library and find it under 'U'. Especially since the people discrediting your clan wouldn't want the truth to be easily found."

"Your right. Most of this I didn't find out until in the last two years. My abilities I had to figure out on my own. The clan legend I got parts of from the man who raised me, since my mother had told him while he was raising her. It wasn't exactly complete or very accurate. Two years ago, a Konoha councilman was being investigated for various crimes when the investigators found evidence that he had been the one to bribe the Atlas council, among many other crimes. He had also listed the location of the Uzumaki vaults, which were located under the shrine to Ryujin on Uzushima. He had been extremely pissed when he found out that you had to have the Uzumaki semblance to enter them. When I went there I found the clans old records, dating to when they founded the island." While most of them now had looks of understanding, Weiss looked livid.

"Yeah, Weiss? You look like you're about to explode."

"You said that the same man who adopted you raised your mother, right?"

"Yeah, why does tha-oh. Yeah, now I see where you're going. I'll just confirm it. Yes I was raised by the founder of the White Fang. He also hadn't given it an order for around fifteen years when either of us was born. He had about as much to do with its current form as your father does. Maybe less." That didn't particularly please Weiss but she put it aside for now, they could argue that later. "That it?" Seeing everyone nod or agree in their own ways, he groaned. "Good cause I'm tired. We should all get some rest; it'll be an early day tomorrow." He heard the others agree as team JNPR left to return to their own dorm and he went into the bathroom to prepare for bed. It had been a long and stressful day. He was glad that it was over.

"GODAMNIT!"

He stumbled as he left the bathroom, just wanting to go to his bed and sleep before looking around the room. He had realized what he had been forgetting.

He'd never asked the faculty about getting a fifth bed delivered to their dorm.

Fucking hammock for another night.

So there's some back story for you, how'd you like it? Not too sure about the explanation, but I felt that it helped with world building, giving the Uzumaki clan history in remnant instead of them just being there. I'm not very fond of when people just put them there and give no explanation. Though I may have gone overboard. Let me know. And yes it does tie in with some events that have happened already and original arcs that will happen in the future. I also wanted Naruto to have a tie to the White Fang's peaceful days, but not have been a member himself. Having Kushina be wouldn't work due to some things I have planned, and same with Minato. And I can picture Hiruzen starting an organization like that. Maybe it's just me. But then, its my story so it doesn't matter. And don't expect Naruto to be calling in the droid armies anytime soon. Just because someone owns a company doesn't mean they can do whatever they want. He isn't Bruce Wayne, and Namikaze Industries presumably employs competent accountants who would find that crap was missing.

Review and let me know what you think. Ask questions, make suggestions, whatever.


End file.
